Product description

"Matched" is the first book in an utterly compelling series by Ally Condie. On her seventeenth birthday, Cassia meets her Match. Society dictates he is her perfect partner for life. Except he's not. In Cassia's society, Officials decide who people love. How many children they have. Where they work. When they die. But, as Cassia finds herself falling in love with another boy, she is determined to make some choices of her own. And that's when her whole world begins to unravel..."Don't miss this gripping page turner". ("She"). "A must read". ("The Sun"). Ally Condie used to teach high school English in Utah and in upstate New York. Currently, she is employed by her three little boys, who keep her busy playing trucks and building blocks. "Matched" is her first novel.

Author information

Ally Condie used to teach high school English in Utah and in upstate New York. Currently, she is employed by her three little boys, who keep her busy playing trucks and building blocks. Matched is her first novel.

Customer reviews

I absolutely LOVED this book!!!! I was glued to it since I bought it, I started reading it as soon as I got it, and it went everywhere with me until I finished it. It really makes you angry, the thought of how controlling the government could get. The whole story is wonderful, I loved how easily the characters fell into place, it just felt right. My heart was racing the whole last chapter, and I wanted to cry when I finished because I hadn't bought the sequel! So if you buy this book be prepared to buy the next two books Crossed and Reached.

If it is possible to be both a self-confessed pessimist and a hopeless romantic then that's me. This is perhaps why Matched appealed to me so very much.

Matched is a young adult dystopian romance which brings many Orwellian questions home to a younger audience.

These days the idea of Big Brother brings to mind a voyeuristic television show where exhibitionists parade around a glaringly bright house, making fools of themselves in hopes of making a quick buck.

Thankfully, Condie reminds us what Orwell and Huxley were trying to say with their original dystopian masterpieces. She takes familiar ideas of society being controlled by government indoctrination and propaganda, and manages to rejuvenate them. The pessimist in me thoroughly enjoyed hating the society in which Cassia, the heroine, lives. It is a society which controls where people work, when they die, how many children they have and even who they love.

Of course, anyone who has ever had a crush on completely the wrong person, (and surely that's everyone?) knows that love and lust cannot be weighed and measured. It cannot be controlled.

Matched provides an interesting love triangle between the three main characters. Cassia and Xander are matched and you are glad that they are! Xander seems like a great guy: a sensible choice. But what teenage girl, what woman, chooses "sensible" when shown the option of "mysterious" and "exciting"? Ky provides both and is the proverbial spanner in the works.

As a reader I was drawn into this triangle and really felt for Cassia. Because hers is a tough choice! I found myself rooting for both the male leads, especially at first.

The underlying conflict of the seemingly "ideal" society of Matched, works to beautifully highlight the conflict raging in Cassia's own heart.

We live in a world where we are pretty much always on somebody's CCTV, where advertisements corner us from every form of media, and where Internet dating sites tell us that they can "match" us to a perfect partner based on deep aspects of our personalities. Matched is a poignant and intelligent book which will leave you both asking questions and positively drooling for the sequel.